Camilla Cavendish is right to say that regulation needs to be much smarter (“Government must resist the urge to interfere”, Opinion, FT Weekend, January 25). Smart regulation should follow what has worked.
To give two examples: making employers legally liable for managing the risks they create has transformed industrial safety since the Health and Safety at Work Act was passed 50 years ago.
Second, the pressure exerted by company auditors on their clients in the late 1990s ensured that Y2K failures, expected to occur when the year changed from 1999 to 2000, did not cause major disruption. Regulation should focus on outcomes, be proportionate to risks, and encourage innovative solutions.
Martyn Thomas
Emeritus Professor, Gresham College
Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK
